Clos Rougeard

Clos Rougeard was created in 1664 on the land of Chacé, a village not far from Saumur. The estate's inheritance passed through the female as well as the male line, so its owners' names changed over the centuries: the earliest proprietors were the Venon, Esnault and Dubois families, who tended the vines through the late 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Milon Moreau, grandfather of Charly and Nady Foucault, held the estate during the first half of the 20th century, into the 1950s. His only child, a daughter, married Raymond Foucault, who took on the running of the domaine. Eight generations led Clos Rougeard, the most recent being the brothers Jean-Louis 'Charly' Foucault (1947-2015) and Bernard 'Nady' Foucault, who ran it from 1969. The parcels worked have stayed almost exactly the same since the Moreau era, the one significant addition being a parcel of Chenin Blanc at Brézé acquired in 1993. From December 2015, Nady Foucault was in charge. The purchase of Clos Rougeard by Martin and Olivier Bouygues, co-owners of Château Montrose in St-Estèphe, was officially confirmed on 23 June 2017; no fee was disclosed. Clos Rougeard is operated by SCEA du Clos Rougeard, whose legal notice refers to the affiliated companies of the SCDM Domaines group.

• Created 1664 in Chacé; earliest proprietors the Venon, Esnault and Dubois families
• Raymond Foucault, father of Charly and Nady, took on the domaine after Milon Moreau
• Charly Foucault (1947-2015) and Nady Foucault ran the estate from 1969
• Purchase by Martin and Olivier Bouygues officially confirmed on 23 June 2017

Under the Foucault brothers, Nady was the winemaker and Charly was in charge of the business side. After the 2017 acquisition, Jacques Toublanc took on the estate's responsibilities as caretaker, manager and winemaker, a position that was always temporary. Jacques-Antoine Toublanc was technical director as of August 2022. Cyril Chirouze, previously of Château des Jacques in Beaujolais, succeeded Jacques Toublanc as the permanent winemaker and was at Clos Rougeard as of June 2024.

• Foucault era: Nady Foucault winemaker, Charly Foucault in charge of the business side
• Technical director as of August 2022: Jacques-Antoine Toublanc
• Permanent winemaker as of June 2024: Cyril Chirouze, previously of Château des Jacques in Beaujolais

The 15-hectare vineyard is spread over 25 plots and extends mainly over clay and limestone soils. Some of the very old vines are a hundred years old and have never received a chemical product. The grapes are grown organically, and no synthetic products are added to the vines; in the 1970s the Foucault brothers followed their father in organic viticulture. The vines are planted on a limestone plateau overlooking the Loire, with at most 30 cm of topsoil over the tuffeau, the limestone bedrock typical of Saumur-Champigny. Les Poyeux is a 3-hectare plot on a gently sloping hill in front of the estate, combining clays and draining Aeolian sands. Le Bourg lies in the heart of the village of Chacé, with very old vines on a predominantly limestone terroir over shallow clay loam. Le Clos comes from 15 clay-limestone plots. Brézé is made from several plots of Chenin Blanc on the limestone hillock of the same name. As of 2016, the vineyards had been replanted using massal selections and were ploughed and harvested by hand.

• 15 hectares over 25 plots, mainly clay and limestone soils
• Les Poyeux: 3-hectare plot of clays and draining Aeolian sands in front of the estate
• Le Bourg: very old vines in the heart of Chacé on limestone over shallow clay loam
• Brézé: several plots of Chenin Blanc on a limestone hillock; the parcel was acquired in 1993

Vinifications are gentle, thought out like infusions, in a minimalist approach. The Foucault brothers worked with small yields, native yeasts and long cellar ageing. The wines spend two years in barrel and several years in bottle in tuffeau stone cellars seven meters underground. They were made in the cellars under the family house in Chacé until 2010, when the brothers found a new site nearby with 1 km of underground cellars. From 2022 the wines were to be made in a new gravity-fed winery equipped with 17 new concrete fermenters of 60 to 70 hl, 14 for red and three for white; previously the wine was made in 200-hectolitre fermenters. As of 2022, the reds spent 24 months in barrel: Le Clos in used barriques, Les Poyeux in one-year-old barriques sourced from first growths in Bordeaux, and Le Bourg in 90% new barriques of oak sourced in the Loire. Brézé was made with 20% new oak.

• Two years in barrel, then several years in bottle in tuffeau stone cellars
• New gravity-fed winery from 2022 with 17 concrete fermenters
• As of 2022: Le Bourg in 90% new barriques of Loire oak; Brézé with 20% new oak

Clos Rougeard makes three Saumur-Champigny reds, all 100% Cabernet Franc, and a Saumur white from Chenin Blanc. In the estate's own notes, Le Clos preserves the crisp fruit of Cabernet Franc with often delicate, spicy floral notes; Les Poyeux expresses finesse, with floral or small red fruit notes; Le Bourg reveals riper, fleshier fruit and a dense, full-bodied texture; and Brézé shows the richness of Chenin with salinity and aromatic complexity. A sweet wine is made only in exceptional vintages such as 2018; the previously released vintage was 2003.

• Le Clos: Cabernet Franc from 15 clay-limestone plots
• Les Poyeux: Cabernet Franc from a 3-hectare plot
• Le Bourg: Cabernet Franc from very old vines in Chacé
• Brézé: Saumur white from Chenin Blanc

From the 1980s onwards, Charly and Nady Foucault set out to leave the wine in peace so that it could express its own identity. In 2022 technical director Jacques-Antoine Toublanc said the style of Clos Rougeard 'has to be ripe, but it has to have freshness on the palate at the same time,' adding that for the white he wanted 'the typicity of Chenin' and freshness, where the brothers used to pick late. Writing in Decanter in 2022, Benjamin Lewin MW found 'an unmistakable impression of purity' across the cuvées and proposed elegance over power as the motto of the domain. In 1993 a bottle of Le Bourg 1990 was included unannounced in a blind tasting of top 1990 Pomerols, including Pétrus, Le Pin and Trotanoy, and received the highest average score, an episode Decanter recounted in 2016.

• Foucault philosophy from the 1980s: leave the wine in peace to express its own identity
• Toublanc, 2022: the style 'has to be ripe' with freshness on the palate
• Le Bourg 1990 received the highest average score in a 1993 blind tasting of top 1990 Pomerols (Decanter, 2016)

Primary sources (producer's own site): https://www.clos-rougeard.com/en/, https://www.clos-rougeard.com/politique-de-confidentialite/. Secondary sources: Decanter (Jane Anson, last updated 26 June 2017: https://www.decanter.com/wine-news/clos-rougeard-sold-loire-bouygues-brothers-371476/; Ellie Douglas, 21 August 2016: https://www.decanter.com/learn/clos-rougeard-le-bourg-1990-saumur-champigny-loire-france-326484/; Benjamin Lewin MW and Yohan Castaing, last updated 20 August 2022: https://www.decanter.com/premium/clos-rougeard-410437/) and Winedoctor (Chris Kissack: https://www.thewinedoctor.com/loire/closrougeard.shtml, https://www.thewinedoctor.com/loire/closrougeard_2.shtml, https://www.thewinedoctor.com/tastingsformal/closrougeard2024.shtml). Where the producer's site and a secondary source disagree, the producer's site governs. Last verified 2026-10-19